A scorer in the West of Scotland was recently presented with a prestigious award at the West of Scotland Association of Cricket Officials (WoSACO) annual dinner. Forty-four year old Michael Clarkson, who scores for Uddingston CC in the Western Union Premier Division, was presented with the WM Mann award for 2018. Receiving the trophy from Willie Donald, President-Elect of Cricket Scotland, Michael is the first scorer to receive the trophy in its 33 year history.

The first recipient was Rab Ellis of Kilmarnock, Ayr and Scotland in 1986, and there have been some notable winners since. These include Andy Little and Jack Kennedy, both former Presidents of Cricket Scotland, as well as the entire Scotland squad for its exploits in the 1999 World Cup.

Commenting on the reasons behind the award, Eric Young, Chairman of WoSACO explained ‘The WM Mann Award is made annually to an individual, club or organisation who has distinguished themselves in the previous year and it was felt that Michael’s perseverance and determination to attain his Level 3 be rewarded in some way by his peers’.

Michael has been scoring for almost 30 years, starting as a schoolboy, and has subsequently scored for a number of clubs including Allan Glen’s, Stirling County, Weirs, and now Uddingston. In 2006, Michael became part of the Cricket Scotland National Scoring Panel, and in 2009, he was nominated to the now defunct ICC European Scoring Panel. He first scored for a senior Scotland team in 2010, scoring for Scotland Women. The following year, he joined a number of other Scottish scorers at the World Under 19 Qualifiers in Ireland, scoring for the USA. He has also made two appearances – in 2012 and 2014 – scoring for Scotland Women in their European Championships.

In May 2013, Michael scored his first full Scotland game against Hampshire in Southampton, and scored for the Netherlands in the Scottish leg of the T20 World Cup Qualifying competition in 2015. His first-class debut came in 2016 at Ayr when Scotland played the United Arab Emirates in the Intercontinental Cup, and in 2017, he made his ODI debut when Scotland played Zimbabwe in Edinburgh.

Michael was awarded his ECB ACO Level 3 accreditation in November last year.

Commenting on the award, George Burns, who represents scorers on the Cricket Scotland Domestic Officials Committee, added ‘I would like to warmly congratulate Michael on his hard-earned and much deserved award. As well as being a personal accolade for Michael, this recognition can only help in raising the profile of scorers in the West of Scotland, and indeed Scotland as a whole. It is an unfortunate fact of life, but scorers are at times too easily overlooked when it comes to recognising the valuable contribution that they make to our sport’.